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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We continue now with our 11:00 AM to noon spring fundraising party and our most fun or interesting call-ins of 2023 round two. Today, we're really asking the question, who is that one random stranger who helped you out at any time, and then disappeared? Call in and give them a thank you, whether you know their name or not, whether you'd like to reconnect or not. 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692, our on-air line. That's not our donation line. We'll never ask you for money when you're talking on the air. 212-433-9692. Thank a stranger who showed up just at the right moment at any time in your life, and help you out with something. Maybe that person will even hear it.

Now, the original segment, when we took calls on this, was inspired by the real-life story of journalist and NPR contributor, A.J. Jacobs. A while back, he had an essay in the New York Times in which he wrote about being saved along with his sister by strangers.

One night in Alaska, 34 years ago, Jacobs and his sister got lost, he tells us, in the waterways of Glacier Bay National Park, for many cold, rainy long hours until in the early morning, they heard some voices in the distance. Here's what he told us about that back in September.

A.J. Jacobs: At about 1:00 in the morning, after hours of paddling, we heard these rowdy campers, the only campers from miles. Thank God, they were up and a little buzz and making enough noise, and they rescued us. They paddled out and gave us food and dry clothes, and just showed incredible kindness. These are polarized times, and I sometimes have to remind myself that humans have this amazing capacity for kindness.

Brian Lehrer: Who has a similar story? Call us up and thank a stranger. 212-433. WNYC-433-9692. We got so many heartwarming calls, and tweets that first time, but we just ran out of time, and that's why we're doing round two on our most fun and interesting call-ins of recent times. It often happens that way where a lot of people on the best call-ins are left on hold. Some people called in to thank strangers who helped them during a major crisis in their lives like Melissa in Westfield, New Jersey.

Karen: In 1997, I was in Northern India during my graduate fieldwork. I met a grad student, Melissa, who turned out to be invaluable because my brother back in California was HIV positive, and it turned out that he had gone into the hospital when I was in India and died. Melissa helped me to navigate getting back home when I just couldn't even function.

Brian Lehrer: We had A.J. Jacobs telling his story with a lot of laughing. Caller Karen, I think I said Melissa. Melissa is the person she was thanking. Karen in Westfield, thanking Melissa with some tears in her voice. How about you? Round two of Thank A Stranger for that time they showed up just at the right moment in your life and did something for you. Sarah in Manhattan has one that I think just happened the other day. Sarah, you're on the air.

Sarah: Me?

Brian Lehrer: You.

Sarah: Oh, sorry. Yes, I was racing to Brooklyn. It was raining. My granddaughter was having a ballet recital and I had a bag of things to give her and my pocketbook and my umbrella, and I'm juggling everything. The subway train was very crowded, the seat opens up and a man and I both headed for it, but he said, "Please, sit down." When I got off, I felt someone tapped me and he was handing me my pocketbook which I had left when I was getting off the train.

I would have lost my cell phone, my wallet, my credit cards, my Medicare cards, my driver's license. I can't imagine what it would have been like. All I could say was thank you. I didn't even say anything more than that. I've thought about him since then, and was really delighted that you have this segment, and I always have an opportunity that he might never hear but at least I could try.

Brian Lehrer: Maybe he is hearing it. Who knows? Sarah, thank you for trying. We'll go next to Eli in Kensington. Oh, Eli, you were just on for the quiz, right?

Eli: I was. Sorry about that.

Brian Lehrer: I'm sorry that you didn't win a baseball cap, but I go ahead.

Eli: I get to call back and tell a really good story, although it wasn't good when it was happening. I ride my e-bike to school, take my kids to school. Both my kids sit on the back of the bike. I was exiting my garage where I keep my bike and unbeknownst to me, my three-year-old son had either not gotten on the bike or slipped off the bike just as we were exiting. I got to school with my daughter who's six, and my neighbor saw me and said, "Oh, where's Oscar?" That's my son. I said, "What are you talking about?"

I looked and he wasn't on the bike. I obviously lost my mind and raced back to my building, and he was sitting in the lobby with my doorman. It turned out we saw on the security cameras, that he had raced out of the garage following me and the stranger found him in the street, took him by the hand and brought him into the lobby, and made sure he was safe. My doorman obviously knew him and called me. It could have obviously ended up a lot worse, but thank goodness for the kindness of strangers in the situation.

Brian Lehrer: You'll get PTSD from that one for years, right?

Eli: I do indeed have PTSD from that one.

Brian Lehrer: Eli, hang on. For calling back and telling that story right after the quiz, I want to send you a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap. Hang on, we're going to take your contact off the air because we gave you a very hard question in that quiz. I have a feeling you do know your way around New York pretty well, but not on that question. We're going to make it good. Florence in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Florence.

Florence: Hi. On Saturday, I returned to Manhattan from Charlotte, North Carolina, and I returned to Newark Airport. I'm a senior citizen, and I'm not too tall. I had my suitcase broke, and I have a bad shoulder. It was really very hard to maneuver down the aisle of the airplane and then through this Newark Airport, which I don't know as well as I know LaGuardia, let's say, and it's also new. This young man who had been on the plane just offered to help me. He not only took this broken suitcase and slipped it all the way across this airport. We came out, there were no taxis that were visible anyway. He waited with me until we found the place where one can get a taxi in Newark. Yes, that's [unintelligible 00:07:45] Newark.

Brian Lehrer: Newark.

Florence: He put me in the cab and I did say thank you, but like this other woman, it didn't feel like enough. I just left him standing there as I drove off in my taxi. The minute I got home myself, "Oh, I don't even know his name, and he was so nice." I really am happy that I have a chance to do it on the program whether or not he hears it or doesn't hear it. Anyway, I'm glad [unintelligible 00:08:16].

Brian Lehrer: Florence, thank you. Thank you very much. Hope he does hear it. Let's go next to Paula in Park Slope. Paula, you're on WNYC. You want to thank a stranger?

Paula: I do. Several years ago, I was on a road trip on top of Lake Seneca, small town, parked ready to eat breakfast. A stranger noticed that liquid was coming from the bottom of my car, walked down, determined that it was coolant. He was an amateur mechanic. I followed him with my car to an auto supply place where he determined I needed a new pipe connector. You can tell I know a lot about cars. 2003 Sob. Couldn't find it. Led me to another auto supply store, couldn't find it. Determined that there were two junkyards that theoretically had this part. We spent hours searching through 2003 Sobs, my model, to find this pipe.

He finally got it out. Meanwhile, by the way, my car and my engine was overheating, so we had to keep stopping and adding coolant that we bought along the way. He was finally not able to replace the pipe and called a local mechanic with a tow truck to change it. When the local mechanic heard the story of this amazing guy who was off on the side making a cell phone call, he decided not to charge me at all, replaced the pipe. Then the original Good Samaritan, by this time-- oh, by the way, I had also left my cell phone in one of the junkyards. We had to drive 40 miles back to get- all the time I'm following him- to get the cell phone.

Meanwhile, it was so late, I couldn't drive home back to Brooklyn. He led me to a nice, I don't know, Hilton Garden Inn or something that he had once stayed at in-- I can't remember where it was at this point, some small city, and left me off. He wouldn't take anything, not a meal, nothing, except for the extra coolant that I had bought and a few tools I had bought.

Brian Lehrer: It's a great story, Paula. I love it because it shows just how far out of their way some strangers will go for somebody for nothing in return for them. That is an awesome story. Not to mention that, boy, there is not a lot scarier with a car than a coolant leak, because, yes, it can overheat, and that can be a disaster after that. Thank you for sharing that story. That is a heartwarming one.

We have time for one more, and it's going to be a blackout story, I think, from Dana in Jersey City. Dana, you're on WNYC. Hi.

Dana: Hi. How are you, Brian?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What you got for us? Thank a stranger.

Dana: Blackout August 2004, I think, on the subway on the F train going from Brooklyn back into Manhattan with two colleagues. We got upstairs, and they both looked at me and said, "We love you. We're walking," because they were both-- say, one walked all the way up to 17th and 5th where we work. The other one-- they both did. Anyway, I'm stuck at the corner of Broadway and Houston. I'm like, "Oh, my God." I said, "Well, I'll walk towards the Holland Tunnel." I started looking in car windows and looking for friendly faces and knocked on this woman's car window. I said, "Are you going through the tunnel?" She's like, "Yes, I am." She said, "Come on in." Her name was Hope. She worked at Verizon, and she had just started going back into the city after having worked in the suburbs after September 11 because she was in the city on September 11. She drove me through the Holland Tunnel, deposited me about five blocks from my house where we did not have a blackout, walked into my house, and I said to my son and husband-- Yes, we were the only part of the area that wasn't blackout. I'm like, "Dudes, you know what? There's a blackout going on. Were you wondering about my safety?" They're like, "No, we had no idea." Hope from Verizon drove me through the tunnel, and it was amazing.

Brian Lehrer: Of course, her name was Hope.

Dana: Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: Dana, thank you very much for that blackout story. Thank you, all, for calling up today for round two of Thank A Stranger. Do you know what I loved about that call-in? Everybody who called, they really wanted the stranger to hear it. I really hope that stranger, they had the impulse at the moment that the incident happened, like, "Wait, I don't know who you are. How am I going to thank you?" Hopefully, some of the strangers heard some of the thanks.

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